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View Levent Ali's profile on LinkedIn

A tumblelog on much and nothing in the life of Levent Ali...

What does he do?

He's a Ruby developer, currently employed by JGP. He's working on and migrating from the old to the new, what is potentially one of the largest applications to date built in Rails.

He enjoys taking photos and co-owns Dented Records.

He's more of a jazz coder than a rockstar.

"Levent is a great web developer - always learning, always keen to get stuck into a meaty problem. Fully TDD and CI compliant, Levent always focuses on quality output. That said you can't hire him he works for me!!"
- Eben Halford, CTO, Jobs Go Public

I'm always open to stimulating conversation though.

Aug
6th
Wed
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The Fear of Free

What’s with the fear of free? It’s funny on the one hand as receiver you’re always sceptical, “What’s the catch?” but it’s amazing the impact when you’re on the other side of the coin.

Our company are thinking of giving something away free on the web. Imagine! Something free on the web! What will they think of next? Anyway, now the account managers, sales staff and other stake-holders are so fearful of perceived risks associated with this, they are totally committed to the development process.

We’ve spent years trying to educate them on Agile principles and trying to get their buy in to our process, even though it’s always been of absolute benefit to them. Now that they are scared that giving something away might come back to bite them, it’s incredible the quality of user stories that are coming out of them.

Welcome to the new millennium guys…

Aug
4th
Mon
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Absolute impossiblility of accurate sprint planning, and utter meaninglessness of any measurement of velocity, due to a team consisting of 3 full-time developers, one Tom, and one Levent (one-tenth of a developer (in a good week))
— Recorded by Kate McAllister on our impediment backlog
Jul
22nd
Tue
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Dead Prez - Hardcore political activist rappers

And no, we can’t escape from the realness
Happiness is all in the mind
Let’s unwind, and find a reason to smile
I’m just glad to be alive
Feelin’ fine
Livin’ life one day at a time
Feelin’ great
Jul
21st
Mon
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I’m a big dreamer so watch me come up with somethin’
— Nas - N.Y. State of Mind II
Jul
15th
Tue
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Jul
11th
Fri
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Analyze. That’s what I do to MCs
That be talkin bout they this and that, money please

Ego. I’m on my own jock skill
Cuz if I don’t say I’m the best, tell me who the hell will?

— Phife Dawg
Jul
2nd
Wed
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Jun
23rd
Mon
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Foreign Beggars Gig Thursday 26 June
Foreign Beggars Gig Thursday 26 June
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Ronaldo leaves United
Jun
20th
Fri
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Big Willie Style
Big Willie Style
Jun
19th
Thu
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Geeks or heroes?
Jun
18th
Wed
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Jun
17th
Tue
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Definition of mooted

A cow wearing Doc Martens